Montreal

Colocation Insights

• Montreal’s data center market is characterized by tight power restrictions and strong demand for AI-ready capacity, with most new growth coming from operators who already have power allocations.
• QScale’s rapid delivery of 14 MW at Lévis and Enovum’s 3.4 MW expansions briefly raised the market’s vacancy rate, but large contiguous blocks of more than 1 MW remained rare outside these projects, reflecting continued supply constraints.

Market Trends

• Quebec’s restrictions on new power procurement meant virtually no large greenfield developments broke ground; operators without pre-approved Hydro-Québec service agreements or under the 5-MW threshold faced significant delays.
• The market remains appealing for AI and high-performance computing workloads, driven by low-cost hydro power, renewable energy incentives and a robust network ecosystem. This is pushing most new capacity into specialized high-density, liquid-cooled deployments.

Notable Activity

• QScale advanced another phase at its Lévis site, delivering 14 additional MW in under six months that are being heavily targeted for AI applications.
• Enovum expanded at two sites, including deals with Cerebras for AI clusters.
• Nordik Data Centers and Accelsius launched a dedicated AI facility with direct-to-chip cooling and an on-site innovation lab.

Figure 1: Historical Market Information

Figure 2: Market Inventory and Vacancy

Figure 3: Market Fuel Mix

Figure 4: Average Asking Rates